1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to web handling devices, and more particularly, to an apparatus for laterally displacing web sections after the sections have been cut from a single web.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to increase productivity in business forms presses, it is known to pass a wide continuous web through a wide business form press and then to cut and separate longitudinal sections of the web and to fold and otherwise package the separate web sections, which are at standard widths for business forms.
In a business forms press, a web is unwound from a roll, passed under tension through successive printing units or towers, and then through processing units, such as for numbering, file hole punching, line hole punching, cross perforation, etc., and finally zigzag folding. All of these operations must be accurately registered. Passing a wide web through the press which ultimately can be separated into three or four web sections, each of which represents a standard width business forms press, has obvious advantages.
The separation of the wide web preferably occurs after the processing units, immediately preceding the zigzag folding of the web sections. However, after the web has been cut longitudinally to form the web sections, the edges of the web sections are adjacent each other and must be separated in some manner in order to allow for ease of operation. Presently, it has been known to stagger such folders longitudinally in order to provide space for such equipment. However, this increases the space requirements of the press.
Other solutions include slacking the tension in the webs and then separating the webs, reapplying tension, and then folding the individual webs as suggested in Fulk's U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,596,899, issued Aug. 3, 1971, and reissued Oct. 3, 1978 as Re. 29,794, and 4,068,973, issued Jan. 17, 1978. Although Fulk refers to superimposed webs, it is obvious that the same technique could apply to a wide web for separating the resultant web sections. However, the apparatus required for slacking and retensioning the webs renders this alternative to be too expensive.